line spacing - too much lead

[Heidi]

Back in February Brad posed this question and got no responses. I thought I
would give it another shot because it is starting to give me major headaches.

I edit lots of documents that originate in Asia. At some point in the last
few months I started getting documents with exaggerated line spacing: single
looked liked almost like double, double looked like triple. I used to be able
to get around this by copying and pasting into a new document using "copy
special" and "text only," but now it appears that I end up with the same
appearance regardless of any attempts to copy and paste my way out of it.
I've figured out (by trial and error with "exact" line spacing) that "single"
line spacing with Times New Roman 12 pt. is giving me the equivalent of 18-pt
lines! That's a lot of added white space on a page, and it is much worse when
using "double" line spacing. This problem now extends to all new documents as
well.

So, I asume that something nasty has happened to my normal.dot file (or some
deeper system file). It has apparently adopted bad habits from one or more of
the files I edit. I haven't used the "automatically update" box (that I can
recall). But even if I had, how could this have reset the basic algorithm for
line spacing?

If the problem is with normal.dot, can I reset this to the original settings
in some simple way? I seen mentions of this but a detailed "how to" would be
really, really welcome if this will help solve my problem.

Thanks so much to anyone who has some idea of how I can fix this.

 

[Heidi]

I neglected to mention, this is on Word 2002 (a French version, but the
commands translate directly).

 

[Jay Freedman]

Back in February Brad posed this question and got no responses. I thought I
would give it another shot because it is starting to give me major headaches.

I edit lots of documents that originate in Asia. At some point in the last
few months I started getting documents with exaggerated line spacing: single
looked liked almost like double, double looked like triple. I used to be able
to get around this by copying and pasting into a new document using "copy
special" and "text only," but now it appears that I end up with the same
appearance regardless of any attempts to copy and paste my way out of it.
I've figured out (by trial and error with "exact" line spacing) that "single"
line spacing with Times New Roman 12 pt. is giving me the equivalent of 18-pt
lines! That's a lot of added white space on a page, and it is much worse when
using "double" line spacing. This problem now extends to all new documents as
well.

So, I asume that something nasty has happened to my normal.dot file (or some
deeper system file). It has apparently adopted bad habits from one or more of
the files I edit. I haven't used the "automatically update" box (that I can
recall). But even if I had, how could this have reset the basic algorithm for
line spacing?

If the problem is with normal.dot, can I reset this to the original settings
in some simple way? I seen mentions of this but a detailed "how to" would be
really, really welcome if this will help solve my problem.

Thanks so much to anyone who has some idea of how I can fix this.

Hi Heidi,

You can test first by starting Word without Normal.dot or any add-ins.
Go to Start > Run and type

winword.exe /a

(note the space before the slash). If that removes the problem,
proceed.

If it is something that happened to Normal.dot (which it may or may
not be), you should be able to restore the out-of-the-box behavior
with this procedure:

- Use Tools > Options > File Locations to determine where your User
Templates folder is. You may need to click the Modify button to get a
usable path because the dialog truncates long paths, but then click
Cancel so you don't change the location.

- Close Word.

- Start Windows Explorer. First set it so you can see hidden folders
and files: Click Tools > Folder Options > View, and select "Show
hidden folders and files". Then open the folder you found as the User
Templates location.

- Rename Normal.dot to something like OldNormal.dot.

- (optional) Run a search on all available drives to make sure there
aren't any other files named Normal.dot that Word could grab by
mistake.

- Restart Word.

If all is well, and if you had styles, AutoText, toolbars or macros
that you want to keep, use the Organizer (Tools > Templates and
Add-Ins > Organizer) to copy them from OldNormal.dot to Normal.dot.

If the problem is still there, it may be support for an Asian language
that's causing it (especially given the source of your documents). Go
to Start > Programs > Microsoft Office > Microsoft Office Tools >
Microsoft Office XP Language Settings, select any Asian languages from
the enabled list, and click Remove.

If you don't have a cure yet, it's time to start looking at any
add-ins you have. See these articles:
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/CheckIfAddinsInstalled.htm
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HA011514521033.aspx

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Keep in mind, too, that the leading on 12-pt type will almost always be more
than 12 points. For TNR it's about 120%. I think this was chosen
intentionally so that the original Normal.dot default 10-pt type would have
12-pt leading, resulting in 6 lpi (standard typewriter line spacing). That
works out to 14.4 points for 12-pt type. But if you're really getting
something closer to 18-pt, then obviously there is something amiss.

 

[Heidi]

Thanks Jay -

I think the first approach fixed things. At least my new documents are
behaving normally again. My CD doesn't seem to want to let the language tools
be installed, so I can't do the second fix to get the incoming documents to
look right.

I'll have to get back to the technician who installed my software on that
one -- I think he supplied me with a corrupted Office XP disc! Not the first
time the issue has come up, but maybe it is time to haul my computer down to
his office ...

Thanks again!

Heidi

 

[Heidi]

Hi Suzanne -

Yeah, I had read the earlier messages about that and it really isn't what
I'm seeing. We're not talking about a subtle change here. My old documents
are distinctly "denser" for the same line spacing settings than are the new
ones. It doesn't matter too much to me that my clients' documents go back to
them with the same weird spacing they came with, but when it started affected
my own NEW documents, that pissed me off just a bit! Jay's fix seems to have
done the trick though, and I'll try the linguistic tools fix once I get
access to it.

Thanks for the insight -

Heidi

 

[Jay Freedman]

Hi Heidi,

Good -- glad to help.

If you don't have the language tools installed, then it's unlikely
that they're related to the problem at all. I'd leave well enough
alone at this point.

 

[Klaus Linke]

In case somebody else runs into this: It can probably be fixed with a macro...

ActiveDocument.PageSetup.LayoutMode = wdLayoutModeDefault

This came up a few years ago. If you have support for Asian languages installed, you can change it in the user interface someplace ("No grid" on the "Document grid"
tab of the Page Setup dialog).

To run the macro, open the macro editor (Alt+F11), go to the immediate window (Ctrl+G), paste or type the line, and hit the Enter key at the end of the line.

Regards,
Klaus